RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop tumor cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to damage tumor cells. Combining these treatments before surgery may kill more tumor cells in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Pathologic response rate as measured by pathology of the resected specimen and chest x-ray at 3 and 5 years after completion of study treatment [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Disease-free and overall survival at 3 and 5 years after completion of study treatment [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Estimated Enrollment:

30

Study Start Date:

August 1999

Detailed Description:

OBJECTIVES:

Determine the response rate, duration of response, and survival in patients with bulky stage IIB or stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer treated with paclitaxel, carboplatin, and radiotherapy followed by surgical resection.

Assess the toxicity of this regimen in this patient population.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Patients receive paclitaxel IV over 1 hour and carboplatin IV over 30 minutes weekly for 5 weeks. Patients also undergo concurrent radiotherapy daily 5 days a week for 5 weeks in the absence of unacceptable toxicity. At approximately 4 weeks after completion of chemoradiotherapy, patients with stable or regressive disease undergo surgical resection. If disease is unresectable, patients receive an additional 2 weeks of radiotherapy.

Patients are followed every 3 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 3 years, and then annually thereafter.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 29-30 patients will be accrued for this study.

No other prior malignancy within the past 5 years except adequately treated carcinoma in situ of the cervix or nonmelanoma skin cancer

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

Biologic therapy:

Not specified

Chemotherapy:

No prior chemotherapy

Endocrine therapy:

Not specified

Radiotherapy:

No prior radiotherapy

Surgery:

See Disease Characteristics

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00006469